


By The Seashore

by AsagiStilinski



Series: Y-G-October 2018 [15]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Fluff, Injury, Injury Recovery, M/M, Mermaids, Merman Atem, Mermen, Merpeople, Painting, Rescue, artist Yuugi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 21:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16312784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: He had dark tan skin, long hair in a similar style to Yugi's own, with blonde bangs and a black and red backing, his tail was blood red, with little fins attached to both sides, and lighter colored fins at the bottomHe really was a sight to behold...And when his eyes finally slid open, Yugi felt as though his breath had been stolenDay 15 of Y-G-October 2018





	By The Seashore

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Finaiarel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finaiarel/gifts).



> Day 15 of this challenge http://horrificmemes.tumblr.com/post/177941943723/its-that-tiiiime-just-like-last-fall-im-giving "Seashore"
> 
> I knew from the second I saw this challenge that I'd be doing merman!Atem for this one, how could I possibly pass it up?

When he was a young boy, Yugi remembered his mother telling him of the Sea Folk

Vivid tales that she would tell over the course of many nights, sometimes set to music, others accompanied by paintings

The stories were always wild and untameable, always telling fantastic legends about merfolk and selkies and mersharks

He loved those times with her

Even now, long after her death, those were the things he remembered about her most

She had loved the sea, and perhaps that was why he had chosen to live on the beach

He was an artist at heart, always having his hands in something creative, be it painting or drawing, writing or composing, he could never go for very long without doing something creative, and being on the beach like this always helped to cure any artist's block or writer's block that may plague him

All he ever needed was a deep breath of ocean air or the sound of the waves crashing up against the shore in order to reignite his spark, and tonight was no different

He had been trying to paint for hours now, but everytime he sat down with his brush, there was some sort of interruption

The phone rings, the dog barks, the mailman comes to his door, his stomach growls....

It had been one thing after another all day, but now that the sun had gone down and everyone was starting to settle down for the night, Yugi was determined to start painting

There was just one little problem...

He was lacking inspiration

He'd known that morning what he had wanted to paint, but now that he was actually staring at the canvas, he realized that all of the activity and distraction had made him forget the idea entirely

He couldn't help but curse in frustration over that, he remembered having loved his idea, he just... couldn't remember what the idea was now

Truly the worst kind of artist's block...

He was still determined though, and hoped that perhaps a walk on the beach would cure him of his frustrations

"Mage! C'mon girl, let's go for a walk!"

He didn't have to call her twice

Within seconds the sound of little claws skittering across hardwood sounded through the house and the dog- a black Labrador- was sitting at his feet with a smile on her face

He felt his lips tug up in amusement, trying to press down the urge to laugh but only barely succeeding as he grabbed her leash and harness, strapping it on her with well-honed ease, and grabbing his jacket on the way out of the house

Mage was a big dog, bigger than Yugi in fact, but she was usually perfectly well behaved, he never had to worry about her running off at top speed or dragging him around the beach into dangerous situations, she just... wasn't that kind of dog

...

Until tonight

He had only been outside for five minutes- that being a generous estimate, there was a strong chance that it was actually even less- when all of a sudden Mage's ears perked up, standing at attention as she stared forward into what Yugi could only see as empty space

"Magey? What's gotten into yo-?"

He didn't have time to finish the rhetorical question, before he was suddenly tugged along for a ride on the dog's leash

"M-Mage!!?! What's gotten into you!? What are you doing!?"

Predictably, the dog didn't answer

Instead she merely kept dragging Yugi along the sand, not caring that he was stumbling and rushing in his attempts to keep up with her

"Mage PLEASE! You're going to get me killed!"

An exaggeration, probably, but still worth saying all the same in his personal opinion- you know, just in case

He was just about to call out to her again when the dog finally came to an abrupt stop, causing Yugi to almost run into her as he too took a sudden pause

"Mage, what are you do- .. what.... is that...?"

All of a sudden, Yugi understood exactly what had sent his dog so crazy

There on the beach, lying right against the shore where the waves were crashing into the sand was a man

An unconscious man, laying there by the water

All of his frustrations were suddenly gone, and panic mode kicked in

"S-Sir!? Are you ok!?" Yugi shouted, dropping down to the sand below and gently starting to shake the stranger, hoping for a response

"Hello? Are you awake!? Sir!?"

Nothing

No response at all

Anxiety was really kicking in at this point, so he pressed a little bit harder on the stranger's smooth, wet skin, attempting to shake him again, but as he did this, he noticed just how soaking wet the stranger's skin was

At first Yugi had just assumed that the dampness had been from the humid evening air mixed with the occasional spray of the ocean water, but it seemed to be alot more than that, it felt as though the stranger had been soaked through to the bone....

Had he ... washed up on the shore...?

Just as he was about to call out to the stranger again, he happened to glance down, his heart skipping a beat and his breath catching in his throat

When he had glanced down the stranger's body towards his legs, he found that it wasn't legs at all that he was sporting.... it was a _tail_

A _mermaid_ tail

... Or, well, mer _man_ he supposed

With that realization in mind, he carefully took one of the stranger's hands, making note of the sharp claws on the tips of his fingers, gently tilting his head aside and getting a look at the fragile gills marking his neck, and carefully peeling back his lips to eye the rows of razor sharp teeth in his mouth

This was too detailed to be a hoax

He was a merman.... a real, live, merman....

Or atleast, Yugi _hoped_ he was alive

With renewed anxiousness, he moved towards the ocean, scooping up as much water as he could in his palms and pouring it over the gills, watching in chilled amazement as they fluttered around the intake of water, the merman's chest rising and falling with the breath

He was suffocating like this....

But if Yugi just tossed him back out into the sea, wouldn't he drown?

He didn't know how mermaid anatomy worked, what if they were like sharks and had to keep a continuous motion of water over their gills to breathe?

If the merman sank to the bottom of the ocean, he would die...

Making up his mind quickly, Yugi looped Mage's leash around his arm, then bent down and hoisted the stranger up, stumbling a little, but forcing himself to stumble off back to the house anyway

The merman was heavy, his tail alone probably weighing as much as Mage, but he was thin and lean, his upper body weighing far less than his lower half

It was enough to keep him (mostly) in Yugi's arms as he carried him home, hoping that the bottom of the merman's tail dragging the ground wouldn't hurt him in any way

He needed to get him home

He needed to get him in some water and ... and... _help him_

His mother had always told him that if he were to ever see Sea Folk in distress, that he should make it a priority to help them

Needless to say, he was going to take that advice

 

~+~

 

Shifting

The merman was shifting, moving around if only slightly, his fingers twitching, his tail flexing, he was starting to stir

Yugi had never been more thankfull than he was in that moment that he had a sprayer head for his bathtub, courtesy of the need to bathe Mage as quickly and painlessly as he could

He had spent the last two hours- or was it three?- diligently spraying water over the merman's gills wile keeping him as submerged as he could in his admittedly cramped garden tub

It wasn't easy, but he found it rewarding

Thanks to his work, he was able to study the merman more closely than he otherwise would have been able to

He had dark tan skin, long hair in a similar style to Yugi's own, with blonde bangs and a black and red backing, his tail was blood red, with little fins attached to both sides, and lighter colored fins at the bottom

He really was a sight to behold...

And when his eyes finally slid open, Yugi felt as though his breath had been stolen

His eyes were bright red, like garnet, and when they stared up at Yugi, he could see the pupils dialate, though, he wasn't quite sure why...

Sadly, the calm and quiet of the moment didn't last for very long, and the merman soon began to slosh around and struggle in the bath, clearly startled- at the very least, possibly closer to flat out terrified

"W-Wait, wait," Yugi soothed quickly, holding his hands up in a sign of surrender

"I'm not going to hurt you, I promise, I.. I found you injured on the beach, I brought you here to help you, um... oh.. you.. you probably don't even speak human languages do you? I'm sorry, ah, I wonder if you speak sign language...."

The merman stared at him curiously for a beat before leaning up closely and carefully cupping Yugi's face in his hands, causing the human's heart to start pounding in shock and anticipation

"I ... speak .. human language... I ... understand..."

His voice was deep, thick, and carried with it a heavy accent, though Yugi couldn't quite place it, it sounded as though there was a sort of clicking beneath every word, as if words weren't usually how he communicated, wich was distinctly possible

"O-Oh ... well um... good, then... you know that I was trying to help you?"

The merman nodded slowly, rising carefully out of the water, keeping most of his tail submerged, but not much else

"What hurt you?"

The merman paused, his face only a few inches from Yugi's now

"Humans.... tried to .... catch me, I ... swam away, but..."

He shifted a little more, pointing to a long, jagged cut on his tail, it wasn't bleeding currently, but it looked fairly fresh

"I fought... they fought... I swam..... I hid..... heard boat.... swam more.... it... stormed, waves were .... _violent_..."

He paused, slowly pulling his bangs back a little to show Yugi the large, ugly bruise that was forming beneath his hair

"I hit... something.... fell asleep.... woke here,"

Yugi frowned slightly, biting his lip

He hadn't ever thought that anyone hunted mermaids, maybe they had just found his new freind by mistake and decided to hunt him after seeing him, but either way....

"Will you be safe back in the ocean?"

The merman seemed hesitant about answering that, his nose wrinkling, his lips pursed, eyes seeming to be searching for something as they angled down

"I.... don't know......"

Yugi's first thought was to invite the merman to stay there with him, but he would have to stay submerged in water and- .. oh no....

His gills, he hadn't had water on them since he woke up!

But when Yugi looked at his neck, he saw that they .... were thinning...

"Human, what.... are you ... seeing?" the merman asked, luring Yugi's attention back to him

"Your gills, shouldn't you be suffocating without water on them?"

The merman looked confused for a fairly long moment, before finally seeming to understand what he was saying

"Hm, I breathe... through mouth, gills... blend in," he explained

"Like dolphin, can breathe .. _air_ ,"

So he could breathe through his gills _or_ his mouth then....

He must have been struggling earlier because of being unconscious, he wasn't making the decision to breathe through his mouth then, so his gills acted as the default

"I-I see.... then, do you even really _need_ to be in water?"

The merman was quiet for a moment, his eyes glancing around here and there, seeming to be in thought, before suddenly hoisting himself over the edge of the tub and flopping down onto the bath-mat, startling a worried shout out of Yugi

But he didn't have to worry long, within moments he was able to see the change in the merman's tail, the way it slowly began to shrink and turn colors from blood red to light brown, more like the merman's skin color...

"Are you... _growing legs_?"

"Yes, can .. wear legs,"

This was.... this was nothing short of utterly _amazing_

Yugi was stunned, his breath was taken away, how did anyone even respond to something like this!?

"Amazing..... do you have a name?"

The merman, who's tail was still mostly there, only just beginning to define into the shape of legs, glanced up at Yugi, a small smile ticking at his lips

"Atem,"

"Then... hello Atem, I'm Yugi, it's my pleasure to meet you,"

Atem seemed to smile wider, reaching up and gently wrapping his fingers around Yugi's shirt collar, before quickly and suddenly yanking him down so that his face was hovering just barely above the merman's

"Pleasure.... will be mine," he purred with a toothy grin

"Ah, I think you mean that the pleasure _is_ your's," Yugi mused with a nervous laugh, his eyes flicking down to see that Atem's tail was almost completely done transforming then

Atem only purred, leaning up on his elbows so that their noses were officially touching

"U-Um.... you're welcome to stay here if you want, wile you wait out .. you know... the humans that are after you?"

Atem nodded slowly, seeming to smile even wider as he moved one hand up to slowly start stroking over the other's cheek

"Mm, I ... thank you..... pleasure will... be mine," he promised lightly, leaning just a bit higher and successfully managing to bring their lips together in a soft, slow kiss

Atem tasted like saltwater, and heat, and something that was indescribably sweet, it was.... it was so... _good_

Yugi absolutely melted into it, the two of them continuing on like that for far, far longer than he could have really anticipated, and far, far deeper too

Finally though, after what felt like ages, the merman pulled away, licking his lips and grinning from ear to ear, those sharp teeth glinting in the low light of the bathroom

_Predator...._

"Thank you.. Yugi, for .... setting me.... _free_ , for... helping, protecting.... _saving_... your pleasure.. will be mine,"

Yugi really wanted to correct him again- he really did, but ... something gave him the impression that it wouldn't matter and he should save his breath

"I wish to.... repay..... if... I can?"

"Repay me? For helping you? No no, there's nothing you need to wor-"

.... Although....

"Actually, there _is_ something I could really use some help with, if you don't mind,"

" _Anything_ ," the merman promised with a purr, giving Yugi plenty of reasons to start smiling

 

~+~

 

"Perfect, absolutely great, see? I told you you'd be good at this," Yug praised happily, glancing over his canvas at his merman model as Atem shifted just slightly on the couch

"Anything to.... pleasure you,"

"I think you mean 'please',"

Given the smirk on Atem's face though..... Yugi was really starting to think he understood more Japanese than he was letting on


End file.
